Southwest will add checked baggage fees in addition to pre-assigned seats, becoming like other airlines, under pressure from hedge fund Elliott Investment Management. It also had major layoffs (about 15% of its employees), the first in its history.
As of now, one carry on bag is still included at no extra charge.
Expect boarding to become slower.
As an A lister and shareholder Iâm appalled.
Yea a short term pop but just like companies losing culture due to zoom, southwest will lose its ethos.
Herb Kelleher would be offended.
And just a month or two ago, while they talked about seats, they said free bags changing will not happen.
Oops.
Sure I like the 8% pop today - but thatâs an emotional state.
This isnât good - and the layoff. The culture, if any was left, is gone.
I also noticed - hopefully temporary - that the gift cards at Costco and Sams are no more.
I have used most of my SW points, and I have plenty of other options.
Not just baggage fees. Credits received by changing flights will no longer last âforeverâ. No more open seating, etc. Basically SW will be the same as all the other airlines.
SO disappointed. We pretty much exclusively fly SW since my daughter started college 5-6 years ago. It started because they offered a direct flight to her college town and were fairly inexpensive. Then the direct flight went away with covid and never returned but we stuck with it even though if we wanted to fly direct it meant a 2 hours drive to another airport. We loved the free bags - we pretty much moved her to and from college with the 6 free bags we got between us. And we loved the flexibility in changing flights - weâd book her to come home for holidays or at the end of the year and if she found finals were done earlier or she wanted to stay later it was easy to make the change. Any credits could be saved and used whenever. But these recent changes are making me rethink our loyalty and Iâm starting to shop around to see if there are any airlines that fly direct to where the kiddo is now. Might be time to make the change.
Yup. Tbh, I hate open seating because I usually travel with a group on southwest; early bird helps but is not assured (example: you get in to find the plane 3/4 full because youâre actually a second leg on a longer flight) and Iâd rather just be able to book seats together.
Other than being an A-lister or flying business select who still get free bags, they did say that you would get one free checked bag with a rapid rewards credit card. If they keep that at $69 a year, combined with the other benefits of the card it may be worth it. The card details havenât updated for that yet as itâs only from 28 May, but it would be especially worth it if they do like some other airlines and let everyone on the same ticket get a free checked bag. Depends how often we will fly it - we donât do it more than maybe 2-3 times a year at the moment, but that could change depending where C26 ends up at college.
Frequent customers are their bread and butter.
They acquiesced to activist investors and will ruin the company. When the culture implodes and the activists cash out theyâll be screwed.
Does anyone know if already purchased tickets will be âgrandfathered?â I bought tickets last week for the travel dates of May 20th - June 18th. I know the new changes are supposed to kick in May 28th (?), so the departure tickets would not be affected. But what about the June 18th ticket? Will I have to pay to check my bag or will the previous terms apply since I purchased the ticket while the previous terms were still in effect and no policy change had been announced?
I get that people feel fiercely about what they feel is a culture change. Iâm not that upset about it (partly as I said because I didnât like open seating). I get more annoyed by the so-called full service airlines who charge more AND still nickel and dime you for everything.
Remember how upset we all were when airlines stopped giving us free meals in coach? Stuff happens.
Actually fun fact about that, Delta used to offer a standby pass to international travelers. You got unlimited flights for one month as long as there was a seat for you flying standby. Most of the time we got the flights we wanted. You would see backpackers poring over those schedules they handed out, not just to see when the flights were but to see which ones served meals to help feed you 
Now they neither offer the passes nor the meals!
The email said tickets booked on or after 28 May. So youâre fine.
I got the email while I was traveling yesterday and glanced at it but couldnât get the âchartâ of changes to pull up so figured Iâd look at it later. This morning I woke up to the local news (Denver is a big SW city) ranting about it.
While I was traveling my SW credit card was hacked so it was cancelled (luckily, I had another card with me). They are reissuing but I may let it go as I like the United perks better (and only wasnât using that on this trip because Iâd charged the trip on it and I donât like one card to get too high). I donât remember when it was $69 as mine was $99 for the last few years and I upgraded to $149 last year to get more perks. Happy to let that go.
One of the things I like about SW is that everyone doesnât try to carry on everything as you can check for free. Now it will just be another Frontier with charging for everything. Also, since SW doesnât participate in 3rd party booking like Kayak, it is harder to compare fares. Just one more reason to go with other options.
My friends will be happy as now I can just fly United into HHI and save them the trip to Savannah.
And if your SW flight gets cancelled, they do not look for flights for you on any other airlines. You just have to wait for their next available flight. Ask me how I know.
The âplusâ is $69 and the priority $149. Rapid Rewards Credit Cards | Southwest Airlines
I guess they will put the free bags as a perk for priority!
I use a hotel-branded card as my loyalty card.
I read somewhere yesterday that they are now planning to participate in 3rd party bookingâŠ
They do have them on Google now to compare, they didnât before,
Kayak already shows Southwest flights and fares.
They are now on Expedia.
And I bought on AA and they paid for the ticket. But you have to pay and write in for a refund.
People like to diss all thatâs wrong with SW and everyone is entitled.
But they are the largest domestic carrying airline - passenger wise.
Thatâs not by not being customer centric.
They are risking a lot here in my opinion.
Didnât Frontier and Spirit âsolveâ the carry on bag problem by charging for carry on bags, and then United, American, and Delta started doing that?
Southwest will be allowing one carry on bag included for now⊠But will it eventually charge for carry on bags when the competition for overhead bin space causes too many delays?
They did not have the brand or financial strength of SW.
SW is pivoting, not due to distress, but a languishing stock and activist investor.
Itâs the only major U.S. airline never to go bk.
Maybe it goes well but my guess is the activist bails and they have a broken identity.
The layoff itself was a bad move in this sense. They could have left open jobs unfilled and rely on buyouts or attrition.
Only on the most basic fares, right? The fares that compete with the lowest cost airlines.